(a) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to provide novel toxoids of elastase which is originated from Pseudomonas aeruginosa through inactivating its virulence, in other words, any toxoidizing with a synthetic peptide reagent of chloroacetyl-N-hydroxy-L-leucyl-L-alanylglycinamide while leaving its antigenity as it is.
(b) Description of the Prior Art
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is gram-negative and aerobic bacillus which generally co-exist with pyogenic bacillus and is known to be a pathogen of pyothorax, tympanitis, cystitis, hemorrhagic pneumonia, etc., on human beings and mammalian animals, especially on a mink, which is known to be one of the most expensive sources of furs. In both the fields of human and veterinary medicines, so-called "Opportunistic infections" caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa has recently provoked an attention among doctors as the subject to be solved urgently, and immunotherapy as well as chemotherapy using antibiotics have been carried out for preventing and treating said infections, however, they are said yet incomplete and are under development.
In regard with the above-mentioned immunotherapy, the same inventors as this invention's had reached the findings that enzyme such as elastase and protease of Pseudomonas aeruginosa origin possessed antigenic activity, however, they also possessed undesirable activity such as destroying the protein tissues of patients and these undesirable enzymatic activities made infectious diseases caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa hard to cure.
Then, for the purpose of inactivating as above these undesirable enzymatic actions while leaving desirable antigenic actions as they are, there were provided the toxoids of elastase and protease which were respectively inactivated with formalin, and the vaccine which consisted of the abovementioned two kinds of toxoid and an antigen named OEP, which was derived from Original Endotoxin Protein, which was commonly found in more than 13 kinds of Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains. Production, physicochemical properties and immunological properties of the above two kinds of toxoid together with the production of purified crystalline elastase and protease, which were used as a raw material of the toxoids, were disclosed, for example, in the specification of U.S. Pat. No. 4,160,023 patented on July 3, 1979 and those of the latter vaccin were disclosed, for example, in the specification of U.S. Pat. No. 4,157,389 patented on June 5, 1979 by the same inventors as this invention's.